March 20th, 2010

Last post (Mloukhiyeh I) was about how to preserve mloukhiyeh for winter use, Today’s post is about how to cook this mloukhiyeh.

In Syria, there are two ways to cook mloukhiyeh, either whole leaves in most cities, or chopped in Aleppo. It is cooked with meat or chicken, and served with rice, Arabic flat bread and lemon wedges .

Let’s make Mloukhiyeh:

1. This is dried whole molukhiyeh leaves (dried at home), if it is dried and frozen so it must be taken from freezer and let it defrost.

2. In bowl, mix crushed garlic and ground coriander seeds.

3. Add ground meat.

4. Add salt and black pepper.

5. Mix very well.

6. Wet your hand.

7. Take a piece of the meat.

8. Shape into ball, each time you want to shape the meat into ball, wet your hand before.

9. Make all the quantity.

10. Heat ghee, add meat balls.

11. Cook the meat balls until light brown in color from all sides, then set aside.

13. Cut meat into cubes.

14. Put the meat in a pot and cover with water.

15. Turn on heat, and keep until boil and a foam occur on surface.

16. Once the foam is formed, you can see it very clearly, turn off heat, and take the pot and put under water so all the foam is washed and removed.

17. This is meat after removing the foam.

18. In deep large pot, Heat ghee, and add meat cubes and stir for 5 minutes

19, 20. Add 2 liters water to the meat and add salt, cover the pot and cook on medium heat for 45 minutes.

21, 22. Meanwhile, this is the sheep/lamb tail fat, in Syria it is called “Liyeh”.

23. Add Liyeh to a deep large pot.

24. On low heat, the Liyeh will be cooked until it turn into brown color.

25. Remove the brown chunks from the pot.

26. Discard the brown chunks because we don’t need them in cooking, we want the liquid fat only, but here is what we do with the brown chunks of the fat, add salt and black pepper to the brown chunks and eat them using Arabic flat bread, they are so delicious.

27. After removing the brown chunks, the remaining liquid fat in the pot is used for cooking.

33, 34, 35, 36. After adding some of the mloukhiyeh, hold the pot and shake it up and down, this method is called “tansif” so the mloukhiyeh is mixed very well with the other ingredients, then again add some of the mloukhiyeh and stir with spoon, then do this step “tansif”, until you add all the quantity of mloukhiyeh, so each time you have to add some mloukhiyeh, stir, then hold the pot and do “tansif”.

37. This is all the quantity of mloukhiyeh in the pot.

38. Add ground coriander seeds.

39. Stir.

40. Add the meat cubes with the cooking water.

41. You can notice the meat.

42. Add 3 liters water.

43. Add meat balls.

44. Cover the pot and keep on high heat for 30 minutes.

45. After 30 minutes, uncover the pot, taste if you want you can add salt, and lower the heat and cook for 60 minutes.

46. Meanwhile, heat ghee, add almond halves and keep until golden in color, then remove to a paper towel.

47. To same ghee, add pine nut and keep until golden in color, then remove to a paper towel.

48. After 60 minutes, serve mloukhiyeh with rice, when you serve mloukhiyeh in bowl, sprinkle with black pepper and garnish with almonds and pine nuts.

Rice

49. Melt 2 tbsp ghee and bring it to high heat, then turn off heat.

50. Rinse rice with cold water in several changes.

51. Bring water to boil.

52. Soak rice in boiled water for 10 minutes.

53. To ghee, add 4 1/2 cup water, and add salt, then turn on heat and let it boil.

54. Drain rice, then rinse it with cold water in several changes.

55. Once the water is boiling vigorously add rice.

56. Check if the water is good for the rice by this method which is called “Al-Samda” (Read more about Al-Samda in the post Maqloubat Al-Bathenjan), and keep the rice for 5 minutes over high heat so it will boil vigorously, then lower heat and cover pot and keep for 15 – 20 minutes till rice is cooked, when it is completely cooked, turn off heat, stir and serve.

This is dried whole molukhiyeh leaves (dried athome), if it is dried and frozen mloukhiyeh so it must be taken from freezer and let it to defrost.

In bowl, mix crushed garlic and ground coriander seeds.

Add ground meat.

Add salt and black pepper.

Mix very well.

Wet your hand.

Take a piece of the meat.

Shape into ball, each time you want to shape the meat into ball, wet your hand before.

Make all the quantity.

Heat ghee, add meat balls.

Cook the meat balls until light brown in color from all sides, then set aside.

Cut meat into cubes.

Put the meat cubes in a pot and cover with water.

Turn on heat, and keep until boil and a foam occur on surface.

Once the foam is formed, you can see it very clearly, turn off heat, and take the pot and put under water so all the foam is washed and removed.

This is meat after removing the foam.

In deep large pot, Heat ghee, and add meat cubes and stir for 5 minutes

Add 2 liter water to the meat and add salt, cover the pot and cook on medium heat for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, this is the sheep/lamb tail fat, in Syria it is called “Liyeh”.

Add Liyeh to a deep large pot.

On low heat, cook liyeh until it turn into brown color.

Remove the brown chunks from the pot.

Discard the brown chunks because we don’t nee them in cooking, we want the liquid fat only, but here is what we do with the brown chunks of the fat, add salt and black pepper to the brown chunks and eat them using Arabic flat bread, they are so delicious.

After removing the brown chunks, the remaining liquid fat in the pot is used for cooking.

Add crushed garlic to the fat in the pot.

Saute crushed garlic for few minutes, don’t turn the garlic into gold color or brown color.

Turn off heat, add mloukhiyeh but don’t add all the quantity at one time, add some and stir, then add another quantity and stir, until you add all the amount of mloukhiyeh.

After adding some of the mloukhiyeh, hold the pot and shake it up and down, this method is called “tansif” so the mloukhiyeh is mixed very well with the other ingredients, then again add some of the mloukhiyeh and stir with spoon, then do this step “tansif”, until you add all the quantity of mloukhiyeh, so each time you have to add some mloukhiyeh, stir, then hold the pot and do “tansif”.

This is all the quantity of mloukhiyeh in the pot.

Add ground coriander seeds.

Stir.

Add the meat cubes with the cooking water.

You can notice the meat.

Add 3 liters water.

Add meat balls.

Cover the pot and keep on high heat for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, uncover the pot, taste if you want you can add salt, and lower the heat and cook for 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat ghee, add almond halves and keep until golden in color, then remove to a paper towel.

To same ghee, add pine nut and keep until golden in color, then remove to a paper towel.

After 60 minutes, serve mloukhiyeh with rice, when you serve mloukhiyeh in bowl, sprinkle with black pepper and garnish with almonds and pine nuts.

Rice

Melt 2 tbsp ghee and bring it to high heat, then turn off heat.

Rinse rice with cold water in several changes.

Bring water to boil.

Soak rice in boiled water for 10 minutes.

To ghee, add 4 1/2 cup water, and add salt, then turn on heat and let it boil.

Drain rice, then rinse it with cold water in several changes.

Once the water is boiling vigorously add rice.

Check if the water is good for the rice by this method which is called “Al-Samda” (Read more about Al-Samda in the post Maqloubat Al-Bathenjan), and keep the rice for 5 minutes over high heat so it will boil vigorously, then lower heat and cover pot and keep for 15 – 20 minutes till rice is cooked, when it is completely cooked, turn off heat, stir and serve.

Serve mloukhiyeh with rice, Arabic flat bread and Lemon wedges.

Notes and Tips

The mloukhiyeh used in this post is dried at home (frozen for winter) see post Mloukhiyeh I, I’ve never used frozen mloukhiyeh from market, so I don’t have any idea about it.

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on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 7:58 PM and is filed under Syrian Cooking.
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4 Responses to “Mloukhiyeh II”

WOW! That was quite a production and so interesting! I had no idea you used this method in your home to make it; I am learning so much from your site and loving it!
By the way, I made it with my Coptic friend and she uses a different method, no coriander, no meat, etc. which my friends back home thought was totally wrong! Funny how this dish provokes such passionate responses!